I guess I should put in my 2 cents, too! ;-)
IMHO, I agree that current Ohm Walsh speakers are not true Walsh designs. That said, I am aware that true Walsh driver based speakers are available (German Physiks, Dale Harder, and a few others). But with one exception, the prices are generally much higher than the Ohm products. That exception is the guy that makes tube amps and a few different speakers and has an omni with a ribbon tweeter for ~$2500. I can’t recall the name right now (senior moment). So, when evaluating Ohm products, I look at the value proposition. I think John Strohbeen is a master of speaker voicing, and has produced an inexpensive line of high-performance quasi-omni speakers that kick much of the competition (price-wise) in the pants. So, for those of us with neither the money for an HHR product or the time and know-how for DIY, Ohm offers quite an attractive alternative. Plus, most of the competing omnis do not offer a 120 in-home trial, which was a big factor in my purchase decision.
Rebbi - nice to see you here again. Thanks to this thread that you started, I ended up with my 2000s, and they may well be my last speakers (if I don’t win the lottery and buy a pair of German Physiks or MBLs!). Sorry for your loss.
Just an update: My 2000s have been in the same position for over seven years. When I got my Sound Anchor craddle bases for them, I toed them in slightly for what I assumed would be a somewhat warmer sound, with a little less treble energy (since the tweeters would now intersect in front of me, rather than being aimed at me ears). I have been happy this way, although I have long wished for a more widespread soundstage (it is wide, but weighted in the center), and better image stability with changing frequencies (the images can sometimes shift about the soundstage, unnaturally). Well, a few things I read on line made me curious enough to reposition them, aiming them straight ahead so that the tweeters point roughly at my ears. Whoa! I can’t believe the difference from such a small shift in position. The first night, I did notice some unpleasant sharpness on brass and electric guitar recordings, but since I didn’t listen to these prior to repositioning, it could have been the recordings. But Sunday night, I had a long, exquisite listening session in which nearly every track was wonderful. The soundstage is bigger, wider, and more evenly distributed. The highs seemed cleaner, more stable and more filigreed (a quality I associate with expensive speakers). I got chills up my spine. Then I realized that the last time I had them aimed straight ahead was during my trial period, when they were on my uneven basement floor before the bases arrived. I also realized that I have changed some things in my rig since then, most notably the preamp (from C-J PV11 to McIntosh C220), as well as some cable upgrades, and repositioned my amp to be closer to the speakers and shortened the speaker cables.
Sorry for the long-winded post, but I was quite happy Sunday night as I sat there grinning at how good everything sounded. And I have a new IC on the way to connect my DAC to my preamp. So, even though I was thinking that it just can’t get any better than this, maybe it can!